FREE luxury cruises are being offered with flats in Ipswich in a bid to get people buying during the current housing slump, it emerged today.

Neil Puffett

FREE luxury cruises are being offered with flats in Ipswich in a bid to get people buying during the current housing slump, it emerged today.

Amid sliding house prices, developers Fairview have dangled complimentary £5,000 cruises in front of potential buyers at its town centre Foredeck complex.

The 26 one and two-bed retirement pads are on the market with prices from £124,995, however the slowing of the housing market has left many developers finding it increasingly difficult to shift new homes.

A Fairview spokesman said that prior to a garden party aimed at promoting the complex ten days ago, a total of just three of the flats had been sold.

However following the event, during which an offer of a £5,000 Fred. Olsen cruise voucher was made to those reserving a home, a further seven people have now “expressed an interest to buy”.

But he insisted the cruise offer was nothing to do with the ongoing drop in house prices which many analysts predict will continue throughout next year.

“As a company we are always committed to making home-buying easy and you only have to pick up a newspaper to see there is a wide array of incentives available,” the spokesman said.

“The sheltered apartments we have available in Ipswich aren't affected by the mortgage position at the moment as buyers are primarily cash buyers.”

The Fred. Olsen voucher will enable people to enjoy a cruise to the Caribbean, Canary Islands or the Mediterranean.

Have you been offered an unusual incentive to make a purchase? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

FAIRVIEW'S cruise offer is not the first time estate agents and property owners in the area have offered unusual incentives to find a buyer or tenant for their properties.

Wrenbridge, owners of the vacant Landmark House on Ipswich's Whitehouse estate, are offering a £109,000 DB9 luxury car as an incentive to estate agents to find a tenant for the building.

Several tenants are now said to be in talks about taking on the property, which has sat empty after a planned expansion by American technology giants Agilent was halted by the end of the technology boom.